Versteeg picks fine time for 1st goal in playoffs

Blackhawks winger scores go-ahead tally with 1:30 left

May 03, 2010|By Brian Hamilton, Tribune reporter

Midway through the second period, his mind already roiling with frustration and with nothing but cold air between him and the goal pipes, Kris Versteeg ripped a point-blank wrist shot toward the Canucks' net. It was promptly swallowed by Roberto Luongo.

The Blackhawks winger threw his head back and looked forlornly to the United Center ceiling. He hadn't scored since April 9, his postseason a total whitewash. Already during Monday's Game 2, he'd been denied on a breakaway chance. Now this.

"Obviously," Versteeg said, "it kind of sucks when they can't go in the back of the net."

The mounting irritation and disappointment vanished in one rejuvenating moment later in the night, when Versteeg took a feed from defenseman Duncan Keith and blasted home the go-ahead score, propelling the Hawks to a must-have 4-2 win.

That there was a little extra English on the one-timer with 90 seconds to play — and a little more enthusiasm in the celebration — was not an accident.

"It was bound to come," Versteeg said. "It's been a few games, and sometimes when you're not scoring, it makes the net look a little smaller.

"I felt really good out there tonight, and I guess bounces went other ways than they should have. Luckily, the last puck came to me and I was going to shoot it as hard as I could."

Versteeg aimed to be some sort of presence in Game 2 and succeeded. He helped create traffic around the net that led to Brent Seabrook's goal in the first period, a critical parry to the Canucks' quick two-goal lead.

And even though Luongo stonewalled the breakaway chance, Versteeg applied pressure all evening. The winger, a minus-3 for the postseason until Monday, was a plus-3 in Game 2.

"He stuck with it, he didn't get frustrated," Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "When you're getting chances, you don't want to start thinking too much. You want to keep throwing it on net and eventually as skilled as he is, as great of a shot as he has, something's going to go in for him."

It was part of a boost provided up and down the lineup. Adam Burish and Ben Eager were inserted on the fourth line and provided energy. And then Versteeg helped add a third-line scoring threat, confirming afterward that those lines "need to step it up."

He did, and the Hawks have hope as a result.

"It's only fitting he's the guy that gets the winner," Hawks winger Patrick Sharp said of Versteeg. "It's his first goal of the playoffs. Couldn't have come at a better time."